Tuesday, July 10,
2018
Dear brothers
and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for
the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to
ripen. You,
too, must be patient. Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near. James 5:7-8(NLT)
One of the hardest things to
do is wait patiently. The
fact is we have conditioned ourselves against patience. Everything manufactured these days requires
little assembly or consideration. The
computer I use came with only a single page instruction sheet, and the rechargeable
battery was already charged…plug-in and get going!
We are in a hurry
today. That “hurry” builds tension and uneasiness
into our daily lives which can only be measured with a bucket loader. There is hardly an un-anxious person to be found
among us. Yet that is exactly the advice
given to pastors, to be a non-anxious presence as antidote to the fear and
worry that pervades anxiety.
I had a hard time with that
this past Sunday.
One of our churches uses
multimedia to enhance worship; you could have fooled me. At the first church (without screens and
projector) the service went well, with several changes and unexpected shifts;
it’s ok, we get used to last-minute hiccups!
Elizabeth and I jumped in
the car and noticed it was still early…we had a whole, extra two minutes to enjoy,
getting down the road 11 miles to our second church. That was the last bit of non-anxious in the
day!
Our choir-director, along
with her son, the sound/multimedia technician, were gone on their annual
vacation. So, Russell, ever ready to
take on much more than he is able, or qualified to do, said sure
– I’ll run the computer for those two weeks; no problem!
Poor, deluded monkey!
Disclaimer: if you’re not a technology genius, never
agree to this; it’s difficult enough to stand before even a small church and stay
sane while conducting a worship service.
If you throw-in having only 11 minutes once you arrive at church to
set-up the laptop with the PowerPoint presentation, connect all the thingamajigs,
turn-on the projectors, set-up the camera, video your wife standing at the piano
saying “hi” to cousin Billy in Arizona, get to the bathroom (hey-it’s a long
morning), and rush back into the sanctuary in time for the call to worship…you
have a perfect storm waiting when you begin to lead the congregational
call-to-worship printed in the bulletin – especially if you have in your hands the
bulletin from the first church, and you’re trying to lead the congregation at
the second church.
And then, of course, the
batteries in the remote control choose that exact moment to go belly-up! And there you stand, non-anxious presence smile
on your face, created in the image of God, faster than a speeding bullet, more
powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound,
Super-pastor….and you just want to cry.
Note to self: If you’re going to be a non-anxious
presence, it would be a smart thing to stay within the boundaries of common sense
and follow the advice you give to others from Scripture: what makes the church THE CHURCH is not
a Super-Pastor, able to do it all.
Rather, it is the Body of Christ being THE BODY OF CHRIST
with each part doing that loving task to which it has been called.
Stay in that; live in that;
proclaim that – trusting God with everything.
That’s how the peace of God, which passes all understanding will create
a non-anxious presence even in the midst of technological chaos! It’s called the gift of patience.
For You Today
Waiting patiently may be the most
anxious thing we do…and the most useless when we wind up faking the “patiently”
part. So, come with me; let’s take a
deep breath and recite the Lord’s Prayer early this morning. Call on the Father; fellowship with the Son;
let the Holy Spirit have all that anxiety, and rest in His peace…patiently!
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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com
